Aurora beat Falcons in the Thunderpick World Championship third-place decider to secure their second podium in a row after ESL Pro League, and surpassed their direct rivals in the VRS ranking as a result, fortifying their standing for a Stage 3 invite to the PGL Major.
Falcons will not play until the Major invite cut-off, but they are still in a strong position for a Stage 3 invite with an 88.3% chance according to our invite predictor, although BETBOOM — who are slated to play FURIA in the grand final — are chasing them in seventh place on the ranking, 120 points behind.
Aurora and Falcons clashed recently in the ESL Pro League Season 24 group stage, with Falcons coming out on top, although the Turkish-majority squad went on to take third place at the Spodek while Finn "karrigan" Andersen and his men failed to make it past the quarter-finals.
This time around Aurora went for Anubis instead of Mirage, but the gambit didn't work, as Falcons put up nine rounds on the attack off the back of a 2.04-rated half by Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov. On the CT side, it was his Russian teammate, Maksim "kyousuke" Lukin, who led the way with a +9.74% swing in the nine rounds it took to steal the map, 13-8, and secure the series lead.
Falcons' Dust2 pick came next, and the series was theirs for the taking, as the last time the two teams met it was Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and company who took it, 13-10.
Starting on the CT side, Aurora seized the chance to get ahead as m0NESY struggled to get going on the attack, securing eight at the half. After the switch, and with m0NESY setting the pace with the AWP on the defense, Falcons came back from 7-11, and then up against three map points to force overtime.
Danny "zonic" Sørensen's men couldn't get it done in extra rounds, however, as the red-hot Jimi "Jimpphat" Salo helped power Aurora with a 1.65 rating and +6.48% to a 19-17 victory that tied the series up.
The third-place decider went to Nuke and remained neck-and-neck throughout the early stage, with Falcons taking a slim 7-5 lead at the switch and tying it up at 9-9 in the second half. From there, though, Aurora settled in on the defense and won four in a row with Özgür "woxic" Eker's AWP ringing as he posted a 2.01 rating with 138.5 ADR on the CT side in the 13-9 victory.
Maksim 'kyousuke' LukinPast 3 months
Falcons
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
Jimi 'Jimpphat' SaloPast 3 months
Aurora
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Özgür 'woxic' Eker
Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın
Ashley 'ash' Battye
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
BETBOOM
Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko
Pavel 'S1ren' Ogloblin
Daniil 'd1Ledez' Kustov
Kirill 'Magnojez' Rodnov
Artem 'Fierce' Ivanov
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačPast 3 months
Finn 'karrigan' AndersenPast 3 months
FURIA
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Danil 'molodoy' Golubenko
Sid 'sidde' Macedo
Özgür 'woxic' EkerPast 3 months
Ilya 'm0NESY' OsipovPast 3 months